Weekly Top 10 - Favorite Gamecube Games

The Nintendo Gamecube may not be my favorite Nintendo console, even though I like it very, very much, but it certainly was the one I wanted the most! I had an SNES before I learned how to walk (I think), and all of a sudden, we had an N64 before I had any idea how big the 3D in games really were. When time passed by and I grew a bit older and understand more of the video game world, I had heard of the Gamecube that was coming, and a couple of friends of mine got their Gamecubes, while I was left without one. The Nintendo Gamecube became the console I craved for the most. I had never wanted any video game machine more than this little box. After it had existed for a year or two, and I kept nagging my mom and dad about getting one, I noticed they had it on sale at a local store, and along with it, was no other game than the Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition. That's when I turned to my mom and said "Mom...now we're getting one! I have enough money to pay for half of it!" and finally, I got myself a Nintendo Gamecube. I may not have gotten the game I wanted most for the console (which is coming in the list, more on that there), but I got it with a collection containing 4 games from my favorite series of all time.

And there you have it. My little story about the Nintendo Gamecube. For this list, I don't really have any rules. Except for one thing: Twilight Princess is excluded. It topped my Wii list and keep it more interesting, I'm excluding it. I guess there's nothing more to say, so just go ahead and check out the 10 Gamecube games I like the most!

10. Wario World

It was a disappointingly short game, with a lot fewer levels than I expected out of the title, with "World" in it, but it was still a fun game. Wario's always been my favorite character in the Mario multiplayer games, and I already liked Wario Land 1 and 4 at the point I got this game. I was happy to finally try out a 3D Wario platformer. The game was not spectacular or anything, but it was a fun experience. It really differed from Mario games, which it should, and it really matched the personality of Wario, being a greedy, treasure loving son of a bitch. The platforming was good, the music was good, the enemies weird and sometimes not creative, but the combat was still fun. Wario World was a good title for the Gamecube. Definitely not the platformer anyone should have, but for every person that likes Nintendo platformers, and then especially Wario, should give this a try.

9. FIFA Street

God, I remember when this was popular! Again, I love soccer (football, really), and I have so many friends I used to play both outdoor football and FIFA with. FIFA street was such a great game for us at that age, when all kinds of tricks with the ball was amazing to us. FIFA Street let us play with national teams against each other, and it was all about how you scored the goals, and not just scoring them. It let us be really creative, and it was so much fun! It was so different from the regular FIFA games, but it was still football. It wasn't too long ago me and other friends of mine picked up this game again, and still have a blast playing this!

8. Luigi's Mansion

Even though Wario is my favorite in the Mario multiplayer games, and Luigi my most HATED one, I must admit that Luigi's Mansion is the better game. I've always liked it! I never had the Gamecube at launch, so I never noticed that Luigi "took" Mario's spot as being a go-to title when the console was released. I hear now that many were disappointed, but I never cared about that. Luigi's Mansion was a new, fresh idea that put the green one in the spotlight. Or should I say "flashlight"? ...nah, maybe not. The game was so fun, being in this huge mansion and sucking up ghosts. What I really liked was the environment itself. The mansion didn't just contain ghosts of random kinds. It did that too, in addition to traditional Mario ghosts, being the Boos. But the ghosts of a big, wealthy family still haunted the place. There was a nursery for a baby, twins, bedrooms for their parents, grandmothers, uncles and aunts etc. It wasn't all random. This mansion actually belonged to a big family. It made the experience better, and I just enjoyed walking around in this giant house.

7. Mario Party 4

Hands down, the best Mario Party title for the Gamecube. This console introduced four (FOUR!) Mario Party titles, which I find to be about 1 or 2 too many. Anyway, Mario Party 4 had everything I like in a Mario Party game. I'm all for the first 4, which I find to be the best ones. It still had 3 items, which you could buy from stores, get from different spaces on the board etc. The mini-games were great, the boards were fun with a lot other mini-games on the board itself, the music was great and the graphics and framerate are so good! Visually, it really was a next gen Mario Party game. To me, anyway. This Mario Party game offered a lot of multiplayer fun, but it was also still fun for single players. This, to me, was the last Mario Party game before the formula got changed to a rather less fun type of game.

6. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

When I first played this, I was prepared to get scared. I did not. Just once, maybe, but I expected it to be a more frightening experience. However, I LOVED the sanity effects! They were incredible! What's real, and what's not? I had already seen and heard about some of these effects, but it's a totally different experience when you actually play it. Some really unexpected things happened, and I really do want to tell you about them. But at the same time, I don't want to. I want you to experience yourself. If you already know what's coming, then it's not fun. I knew about some of these effects, but I'm glad that there was a lot of effects I never saw coming. It made game a lot more fun to play. It's a rather interesting game, not just because of the sanity effects. This game has a very complicated story, where you play as several different characters from different time periods, not to mention at several different places. It's very complicated, but absolutely a worthy title to check out.

5. Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

You already know how much I love Mario Kart... do I really need to say much? I will say that driving with two characters on the same car opened up for new possibilities. For the first time, you could have real cooperation between two friends. One drives the car, the other uses the items. But you can switch position at any time, which is awesome! Even being able to pick up two items at the same time is really cool. This game also introduced different vehicles, and not just carts. Plus, there was a huge roster, and every pair of characters had their own special items. It's a really great game, and it contained my most wanted feature for Mario Kart 8 - The All-Cup Tour, the cup that contained all 16 courses in the game. It's a great entry to the series, and a blast to play!

4. Metroid Prime

Technically, I never played through the whole game on a Gamecube. I did borrow this long ago, but only made it past the Parasite Queen before I returned it. I didn't like it that much back in the day. So, I got the Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Wii a couple of years ago, and played it there. I said that there were no rules for this list, so...Metroid Prime makes it. I have played it for 30 minutes, anyway xD Metroid Prime is definitely the most memorable one among the Metroid games, and might even be the most memorable one to me in the whole series. It was the first Metroid game I completed, and ended up really enjoying it. I didn't really know what it did for the series before I heard it from others, seeing as I never had played Super Metroid or any 2D game before this. But, apparently, it did make an amazing transition while still keeping the Metroid feel to it. Being alone on a planet, exploring, getting upgrades, great bosses etc. The game was really fun, and I really liked the environments and the music. It really had great atmosphere. One thing I really enjoyed that many others didn't (from what I've heard), is the searching after the artifacts. People dislike stuff like this, but this was almost my favorite part of the game. I thought it was a lot of fun to only get a vague description about where the artifact to be. It left me to think, puzzle and figure out what kind of area I had been to that matched the description. I thought it was an awesome idea, and it made the ending awesome! To collect all of these, only to have a great battle against Meta Ridley before facing the Metroid Prime was fantastic. I'm so glad I ended up getting the trilogy...!

3. Super Mario Sunshine

THIS! This was the game I wanted most for the Gamecube when I first got it. This, along with Twilight Princess, have been the games I've been most hyped for. But with Twilight Princess, I knew it was coming. I checked the internet every day for a new video, a new picture, a new something from the game, because I wanted to know everything. It looked amazing! But with Sunshine, I just knew that it was out. And I tried it at a friend's house, and it was awesome! It's so colorful, the levels were a lot of fun, F.L.U.D.D. was so cool to use, and it was just sooooooo much fun to play! But, sadly, I never owned it myself. Actually, I still don't own it myself. I have the game in my collection, but my brother is the one who bought it. Anyway, I wanted this game so badly. SO badly, that every time I heard a commercial that was popping up on TV all the time, that used the song "Walking On Sunshine" by Katrina & The Waves, I couldn't think of anything but Super Mario Sunshine. It's a great Mario game, and I think it's too bad that people didn't like it as much as Super Mario 64. I, however, love it just as much as any Mario game. I think it's fantastic! And it's so challenging as well, which is rare in today's games. It's arguably even the second hardest Mario game, after the Lost Levels.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

No Nintendo Top 10 List of mine is complete without Zelda, and since Twilight Princess is excluded, Wind Waker is my choice. I do like Four Swords Adventures a lot, but of course Wind Waker is the better game. When it came out, I had no idea about that "realistic" fight between Ganondorf and Link in that trailer shown before the game came out, so I didn't mind the art style. It was just another Zelda game to me, and new Zelda games are awesome Zelda games! My brother and another friend of mine were put off by the art style and graphics, but I had no idea why that should put them off. And I still don't. Wind Waker turned out to be a really fun game, It's colorful, has a lot of charm to it, great characters, great music, great story, great villain, great overworld, good dungeons, not very good bosses, but still a great game. The sailing was another thing that never bothered me. Sailing at daytime was one of the things I liked most. It felt like an amazing adventure to see the seagulls fly around you while sailing in the glorious sunshine and listening to the incredibly good ocean theme. To me, Wind Waker has some weak points when I look at it as a Zelda game, but I'm in no way denying that it's a great game, or a Zelda game for that matter. It's still in my top 5, or at least very close.

1. Super Smash Bros. Melee

Whatever the first Super Smash Bros game for the N64 did, this game did a lot better! Better controls, more characters, more and better stages, better single player options, better multiplayer options, tournament, trophies etc.etc.etc. This game was huge, and definitely the game everybody who owned a Gamecube should own. ...and probably does. This game is probably the one I've spent most time with. I've had loads of fun playing with friends and alone. All the single player modes are great. Classic, Adventure, All-Star, the Events, the Home Run Contest, they're all awesome. But the best thing was of course the multiplayer. A regular match was always fun, but the tournament was my favorite feature. It feels really weird to place something else than a Zelda game at the top, but I do believe that this game deserves it. This was a huge game, and I've had so much fun spending a lot of time on this game.

For anyone who wonders, yes, Twilight Princess would have topped this list if I included it xD So my question to you is: what are your 10 favorite Gamecube games? I'd love to see them in the comments For the next list, I'm making my 10 Favorite Menu Themes, just to try and keep it original :p Hope you enjoy it!